Speaker
Description
Within just a few years, the Helmholtz Cloud has developed from a technological concept into a viable digital infrastructure for research within the Helmholtz Association. What is often overlooked is that building such a federated cloud requires not only technical innovation but also a comprehensive legal framework that meets the specific requirements of publicly funded research institutions.
HIFIS (Helmholtz Federated IT Services) is a platform within the Helmholtz Information & Data Science Framework . The team has taken on the task of making the selected powerful services of the individual Helmholtz centers available beyond institutional boundaries within the Helmholtz Cloud. This is ensured by a seamless IT infrastructure that connects knowledge and expertise from all centers. This approach ensures not only technological interoperability but also legal consistency across center boundaries.
The legal basis of the Helmholtz Cloud is the result of an intensive coordination process involving numerous working groups and institutional departments. At the core of these discussions is the Helmholtz Cloud Ruleset, which now serves as a binding agreement for all 18 Helmholtz Centers and the Head Office. This framework clearly addresses key contractual aspects such as liability, duration, responsibility, rights, and obligations for the centers providing and using Helmholtz Cloud services.
Particular challenging was the incorporation of legal frameworks, whose precise wording and negotiation with various stakeholders often lead to delays compared to technical integration’s. The legal environment has to include the general requirements of civil law. However, the provisions of EU state aid law, German value-added tax law, and, of course, the European GDPR must also be observed. The task was to balance these requirements so that they cover the specific use case of the Helmholtz Cloud. To comply with these legal requirements, a consistent distinction must be made when using Helmholtz Cloud services between non-economic activities as defined by EU state aid law and other use cases.
The presentation highlights the lessons learned from this long-term process and demonstrates how legal negotiations and technological development can go hand in hand to create a sustainable federated cloud infrastructure.
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